Tag: Trump tax cuts for the rich

5 Ways the Trump Budget Undermines Gun Violence Prevention and School Safety Efforts

The following article by Chelsea Parsons and Scott Sargrad was posted on the Center for American Progress website February 16, 2018:

Thousands gathered for an evening vigil at Pine Trails Park in Parkland, FL, to remember those killed and injured in the February 15, 2018 shooting, in Parkland, FL. Credit: Getty/Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles

In his address to the nation the day after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 students and teachers and injured another 14, President Donald Trump vowed to take action, stating that he would soon hold meetings with governors and attorneys general in which “making our schools and our children safer will be our top priority.” He continued, “It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference. We must actually make that difference.” However, the president’s actions have already spoken louder than these hollow words. Just two days before the shooting, his administration released its fiscal year 2019 budget, which proposed cutting funding to crucial programs that help prevent gun violence and ensure school safety.

Below are five ways that the Trump budget undermines efforts to reduce gun violence and keep our nation’s students safe. Continue reading “5 Ways the Trump Budget Undermines Gun Violence Prevention and School Safety Efforts”

More than 400 millionaires tell Congress: Don’t cut our taxes

The following article by Heather Long was posted on the Washington Post website November 12, 2017:

The Trump administration says its tax plan is intended to help ordinary Americans, but some key Republican figures have acknowledged that big business and political donors stand to benefit. (Taylor Turner/The Washington Post)

More than 400 American millionaires and billionaires are sending a letter to Congress this week urging Republican lawmakers not to cut their taxes.

The wealthy Americans — including doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs and chief executives — say the GOP is making a mistake by reducing taxes on the richest families at a time when the nation’s debt is high and inequality is back at the worst level since the 1920s. Continue reading “More than 400 millionaires tell Congress: Don’t cut our taxes”

Russia investigation charges complicate Trump’s Asia trip, ability to sell tax cuts

The following article by John Wagner and David Nakamura was posted on the Washington Post website October 31, 2017:

President Trump speaks, with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin by his side, during a meeting on tax policy with business leaders at the White House on Tuesday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

The first criminal charges stemming from the Russia investigation landed this week at a perilous point in Donald Trump’s presidency, threatening his standing with foreign leaders ahead of an important trip to Asia on Friday and his effectiveness in selling the Republican tax plan set to be released this week.

Aides insisted the twin challenges at home and abroad would not be undermined by the indictments, but the frustration of the president — whose job approval ratings hit a new low this week in Gallup polling — was evident Tuesday. He started the day with a spate of tweets in which he lashed out at the media and “Crooked Dems” and urged a focus instead on the “Massive Tax Cuts” he has promised to deliver by Christmas.

In a bid to show he remains focused on the tasks at hand, Trump later in the day allowed reporters to witness the start of a White House meeting with business leaders at which he boasted that the December signing of the yet-to-be-unveiled GOP tax bill would be “the biggest tax event in the history of our country.” Continue reading “Russia investigation charges complicate Trump’s Asia trip, ability to sell tax cuts”

Supply-Side Follies: Wasteful Tax Cuts Will Not Boost the Economy

The following article by Christian E. Weller was posted on the Center for American Progress website October 26, 2017:

This fall’s policy agenda has been dominated by talks about tax cuts, nominally disguised as tax reform. The Trump administration and congressional leaders have so far provided few details, but the existing principles and proposal suggest that the final product will include massive tax cuts for top income earners and corporations. The proposal includes little or no tax relief for middle- and low-income Americans. Proponents argue that the tax cuts will translate into a boost to economic growth because the additional money to the wealthy and corporations will trickle down in the form of more money for investments, as well as lower costs of investments. Greater business investments, the argument goes, will lead to accelerated innovation, which will lead to more jobs and higher living standards.

The arguments in support of supply-side tax cuts do not hold up. Past tax cuts, such as the supply-side tax that heavily favored the wealthy during the 1980s and 2000s, showed neither measurable acceleration of economic growth nor clear improvements for workers. There was also no indication of a worsening economy after taxes on the wealthy increased in the early 1990s and in 2012. (see Table 1) Continue reading “Supply-Side Follies: Wasteful Tax Cuts Will Not Boost the Economy”

Avoiding Another ‘Brownbackistan’

The following column was posted on the Roll Call website October 24, 2017:

Tax cuts in Kansas led to an economic train wreck

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback’s tax cuts are a cautionary tale for Washington lawmakers who are hitting the gas to get a tax reform package completed by the end of the year without paying much attention to details, Patricia Murphy writes. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

“Economic gold rush? Or fiscal wreck?” That was the question the Kansas City Star asked on May 23, 2012, the day after Gov. Sam Brownback signed a sweeping series of state tax cuts into law. Five years later, the Kansas tax cuts are looking a lot more train wreck than gold rush, with a $900 million deficit and Brownback’s fellow Republicans stepping in to reverse the cuts he pushed.

Kansas also offers an awfully timely cautionary tale for Washington lawmakers, who are hitting the gas on getting a tax reform package — any tax reform package — done by the end of the year in order to chalk at least one win on the board for 2017, but who don’t seem to be sweating the details just yet.

Continue reading “Avoiding Another ‘Brownbackistan’”

Lawrence Summers: One last time on who benefits from corporate tax cuts

The following article by Lawrence H. Hummers was posted on the Washington Post website October 22, 2017:

Kevin Hassett, President Trump’s chief economist, estimated Monday that the administration’s plan to cut corporate tax rates will cause average household incomes to jump $4,000 a year. (Evan Vucci/Associated Press)

I recently asserted that Kevin Hassett deserved a failing grade for his “analysis” projecting that the Trump administration proposal to reduce the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent would raise the wages of an average American family between $4,000 to $9,000. I chose harsh language because Hassett had, for what seemed like political reasons, impugned the integrity of people like Len Burman and Gene Steuerle who have devoted their lives to honest rigorous evaluation of tax measures by calling their work “scientifically indefensible” and “fiction.” Since there have been a variety of comments on the economics of corporate tax reduction, some further discussion seems warranted.

The analysis from Hassett, chief of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), relies heavily on correlations between corporate tax rates and wages in other countries to argue that a cut in the corporate tax rate would boost returns to labor very substantially. Perhaps unintentionally, the CEA ignores our own historical experience in their analysis. As Frank Lysy noted, the corporate tax cuts of the late 1980s did not result in increased real wages. Actually, real wages fell. The same is true in the United Kingdom, as highlighted by Kimberly Clausing and Edward Kleinbard. These examples feel far more relevant to the corporate tax issue analysis than comparisons to small economies and tax havens like Ireland and Switzerland upon which the CEA relies.

Continue reading “Lawrence Summers: One last time on who benefits from corporate tax cuts”

Ryan won’t guarantee every middle-class person will get a tax cut under Trump proposal

The following article by Rebecca Savransky was posted on the Hill website October 1, 2017:

Speaker Paul Ryan
© Greg Nash

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Sunday wouldn’t guarantee that every middle-class person would get a tax cut under President Trump’s tax reform proposal.

“That’s the purpose of doing this,” Ryan said on CBS’s “Face The Nation.” “The purpose of this is to get a middle-class tax cut.”

Ryan was pressed on whether that was a guarantee that every middle-class person would get a tax cut under the president’s plan. Continue reading “Ryan won’t guarantee every middle-class person will get a tax cut under Trump proposal”